When Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company back in 1903, few could have imagined the sustained success and impact that Ford vehicles would have around the world. In their 118-year history, Ford has emerged as a leading global automotive manufacturer. A feat that’s been no mere accident. From the beginning, Ford has continuously sought opportunities to revolutionize their offerings to ensure they remain ahead of the curve. Now, they have begun the next stage of forward planning with a set of plans aptly labeled as ‘The Plan’.
So, what is ‘The Plan’? Introduced in October 2020, ‘The Plan’ provides a framework that Ford has designed to tackle the next decade of their operations. A decade that they have significant and ambitious plans for. In the words of Ford themselves, it’s their plan to “turn around our automotive business, improve execution, speed up transformation and drive growth”. A plan they say will help them modernize how they operate, simplify their processes, build on their strengths, and help take care their customers.
Global climate trends are pushing all businesses, across all industries, to change the way they think and operate. Industries are now being tasked with creating more environmentally friendly product alternatives that were previously thought to hold little value. Within the automotive industry, this has resulted in demands to shift away from traditional petrol and diesel vehicles and replace them with electric alternatives. Whilst some car manufacturers like Tesla and Rivian are embracing this future and significantly profiting from it, many have been slow to adopt electric into their product line up. Toyota famously stated that they doubted that electrical vehicles would really take off. Now they’re committed to spending billions over the next decade with the aim of selling 2 million electric cars a year by the end of the decade.
However, Ford have flexed their proverbial forward planning muscles with the development of ‘The Plan'. A vision that provides a great example of how forward planning should be conducted and how best to take active steps toward achieving it. Since the announcement, Ford have significantly invested funds into the improvement and development of factories capable of mass-producing electric vehicles. These investments include a $1 billion transformation of Ford's facilities in Cologne, Germany, a $1 billion investment into manufacturing operations in South Africa and $700 million developing their Rogue Electric Vehicle Center. These investments are key in helping Ford achieve their forward planning objectives. One of which is to move to all-electric passenger car production as they expect 100% of sales will be all-electric within Europe.
Whether the future of automobiles lies in all-electric is still up in the air. The signs are pointing towards this being the case and Ford seem to have thrown most of their eggs into the all-electric basket. However, given they're later to the party than the likes of Tesla and Rivian, are these big investments a sign that Ford is playing catch-up? Or is this still just the beginning of the new all-electric car revolution? Whatever happens, the forward planning abilities of Ford are still to be admired. There's a clear path forward and a strong indication that Ford is unwilling to sit idly by and wait for the future to come to them. They want to lead the electrification revolution and they want to do it now.
